Songs of the Phoenix, the new song cycle curated by Andrew Lippa and performed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus features music by compos­­ers and lyricists Ty Defoe, Alexandra Elle, Siedah Garrett, Joriah Kwame, Daniel Lazour, Patrick Lazour, Melissa Li, Andrew Lippa, Ingrid Michaelson, Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim, Diana Syrse, and Kit Yan.

About Song of the Phoenix: In the early days of the pandemic, Tim Seelig and Andrew Lippa began conversations about completing a trilogy of works created by Andrew for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. The first two were “I Am Harvey Milk” (2013) and “Unbreakable” (2018). Both had words and music by Andrew. This time, Andrew offered to curate a work that would address the aforementioned things happening in our world. Andrew envisioned a large work created by as diverse a group of librettists and composers as possible. Two years, later, “Songs of the Phoenix” was birthed with the world premiere on April 10 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

Song of the Phoenix features narration written by Josh Wilder and Carson Grace Becker and performed by Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr and Cheri Miller. Orchestrations by Peter Seibert and vocal arrangements by Dave Volpe and curation by Andrew Lippa. The album is produced by Leslie Ann Jones. The album is also produced by Dr. Timothy Seelig and and Andrew Lippa with engineering by Dann Thompson and Leslie Ann Jones. Denise Woodward and Nick Abreu as recording engineers with edits by Leslie Ann Jones, Robert Gatley and Dann Thompson. The recording has been mixed by Leslie Ann Jones at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm Ltd. Company with assistant mixing by Dann Thompson. Mastered by Michael Romanowski of Coast Mastering. The album was recorded live at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, Louise M Davies Symphony Hall.

The orchestra is conducted by Dr. Timothy Seelig, and features Nicolas Perez on piano, Aaron Shaul on bass, Matthew Wrobel on bass, Juan Carreon on drums, Fred Morgan on percussion, Peter Seibert on keyboard, Yuri Kye on violin, Andrés Vera on cello, Tom Regouski on reeded instruments. Dave Volpe created the TTBB arrangements and William Southerland created SATB vocal arrangements.

Digital Release Date: June 24, 2022

A Broadway Records Release

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